Ten candidates struggling to replace Britain's Theresa May, will face the first round of voting Thursday, BTA reported.

Conservatives hold their first secret ballot in the governing party's contest, which will begin to reduce the number of contenders.

All 313 MPs can vote and any candidate who does not collect the support of at least 16 of his colleagues will not have the opportunity to participate in the next round. If everyone crosses this obstacle, the one with the smallest number of votes will come out of the race.

The voting takes place in the parliament between 13.00pm and 14.00 pm Bulgarian time, and the results are expected to be announced about an hour later.

There are a few more rounds of voting next week, and the party hopes for only two candidates to remain until June 20th.

160,000 members of the conservative party elected by local members elect the winner and the result is announced during the week starting July 22nd.

Then Theresa May will retire as prime minister and the new leader of the largest party in parliament will be appointed as prime minister by Queen Elizabeth II.

A favourite among the bookmakers is former Foreign Minister Boris Johnson. The former mayor of London broke his silence to begin his campaign on Wednesday, saying he would bring Britain out of the EU without a deal as a "last resort," and pledged to unite the country deeply divided on the issue of Brexit.

Novinite.com recalls that  British Prime Minister Theresa May announced her resignation and said she will leave her leadership seat at the Conservative Party on June 7, which will also begin the process of choosing a new leader to try to reach a more resolute deal for Brexit, Reuters reported.

With tears in her eyes, she withdrew after her speech at Downing Street, 10 in which she briefly reviewed her government and explained how her withdrawal would take place.

With a seemingly excited voice, May, who suffered many crises and humiliations in an attempt to find a compromise deal for Brexit, said she is not leaving with bad thoughts on her mind.

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